The two Democratic candidates for Denver district attorney squared off Thursday night trying to establish their differences — despite agreeing on prioritizing violent crime, strengthening their relationships with Denver police and diversifying their staffs to better reflect the city.
But that doesn’t mean the first debate since Denverites received ballots for the June 25 primary wasn’t spicy.
Leora Joseph and John Walsh come from vastly different backgrounds. Joseph has mostly worked as a prosecutor, in Boston and in Arapahoe County. She currently runs the Office of Behavioral Health at the Department of Human Services.
Walsh has spent his career mostly in the private sector or in prosecutors’ offices at the federal level — including serving as U.S. Attorney for Colorado under the Obama administration. He is currently a partner at WilmerHale leading white collar defense and investigations.
In front of a raucous, youngish crowd at Two Moons Music Hall in RiNo, where everyone who attended got a free summer cocktail, Joseph tried to paint herself as the underdog, but the one with more experience.
She rallied the crowd by opening with a line about how local prosecutors matter, invoking the recent conviction of former President Trump in New York.
Wearing blue high heels and white jeans, Joseph said her opponents would call her “tough” — but she considers herself committed to making Denver safer.
“The number one priority is making sure that victims feel heard and feel supported. I’ve worked 20 years, there are victims that need to be believed, they need to have our support and they need a district attorney's office that’s going to work for them,” Joseph said. “That is the number one goal.”
Walsh, wearing a dark navy suit with no tie, came off as mild mannered and unflappable. He said that despite getting endorsed by incumbent District Attorney Beth McCann, a 75-year-old who has been in the job since 2016, he ran because he craves a new direction in the city.
“I’d focus on violent crime and juvenile crime. I’d firmly enforce the law and make sure we give kids opportunities for development and intervention,” he said. “There are kids who bring guns to (school in) their backpacks because they don’t feel safe ….. If that’s the case, we’ve lost the battle.”
In a Q and A portion of the forum, Joseph seized on the McCann endorsement to push Walsh into how much of a change agent he will really be given his establishment ties.
“I got into this race because I was concerned about the direction the city was going,” he replied. “I think we need to focus in a very concerted way because we're in this critical moment. We got to turn these issues around and that means bringing firm and fair enforcement and actually enforcing the law.”
During his turn, Walsh turned to Joseph and asked why she would run for this job if she was so committed to — and actually improving — conditions for the state’s sickest patients at mental health hospitals.
Joseph had touted that she had improved wait list times for defendants found mentally incompetent to proceed to trial to get restoration before they face their criminal charges.
“That's such an important area,” Walsh said, facing her. “I guess my question to you is you're working at the state level, what motivates your decision not to continue to fix that problem, which is so important?”
Joseph took the microphone.
“Thanks, John,” she said. “So I'm really proud of the work that I'm doing at the state …. We’re making great strides. And I'm feeling really good about that.”
Then she turned to the audience, slightly.
“But I have to tell you, John, I'm concerned about that question because for so many years men have been telling women what to do,” she said as half the room started cheering and roaring. “And how to stay and where to be — that doesn't belong in Denver.”
Both candidates said they were determined to improve relationships with the Denver Police Department — McCann has reportedly struggled with relationships there and the former police chief, Paul Pazen, told CPR News that she wouldn’t return his calls.
Joseph received the endorsement of the police union, but she said Thursday she could still hold officers accountable for wrongdoing.
“I want to say we need to be able to work with the police, otherwise we are going to get nowhere,” she said. “We need to be rowing in the same boat, and when there's tension and confusion, that is when things begin to break down.”
Walsh said he had a lot of police relationships that he made when he was the top federal prosecutor in Colorado, and that relationships make it easier to hold officers accountable.
“Establishing that strong relationship is what makes it possible,” he said. “When you have to make a hard decision to hold an officer accountable and maybe bring charges, it creates the situation where you can do that and the police force understands.”
Rose Pitsch is a recent transplant to Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood from San Francisco. She said she received her ballot in the mail and decided to come to the debate to try and figure out who to vote for. She said she feels “relatively” safe where she lives, but still feels like the neighborhood is in transition.
“Public safety is a concern,” she said. “There is a large unhoused population here, like in many cities, and definitely there are issues with that, but I’m really here to learn.”
Walsh and Joseph, both of whom are white, said they were committed to reaching out to Denver’s communities of color and burnishing relationships.
Joseph said the criminal justice system “is not working for people in low socioeconomic systems.
“And for many Black and brown people, not just because they’re charged with more crimes, but because they’re victims of more crimes. And no one is talking about that,” she said.
Walsh said he was committed to hiring more diverse people as lawyers and prosecutors in the office.
“If we’re going to be realistic about making the DA’s office responsible to the whole community, then we have to do that and not just throw our hands up and say we can’t do it because there aren’t enough candidates out there,” he said. “Period.”
Jeff Fard, who runs Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center in Northeast Denver, said he walked away from the debate “still undecided” and called the candidates similar in how they will likely approach the job.
“I think John constantly goes deeper in the weeds … however, I think Leora brings a certain sense of fight and passion about who she is,” he said. “John seems to play it safe, but clearly if you look at the endorsements, John is supposed to be the next DA. Based upon the system …. But I am undecided.”
